We went to see “Up in the Air” at Barbican Cinema, using Monday discount for £5.50@. Up in the Air, which opened last Friday in UK cinemas, is a comedy drama, directed by Canadian-born Jason Reitman (Academy award nominated Juno and Thank You for Smoking), starring George Clooney. Synopsis below includes a lot of details and ending, so if you haven’t seen the film yet, please feel free to skip the next paragraph.

Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), is a man who makes his living traveling to workplaces around the country and conducting employee layoffs. Ryan also delivers motivational speeches “What’s In Your Backpack?” to encourage a life free of relationships with people and things. Ryan’s life goal is to achieve 10 million frequent flyer miles of American Airlines (I guess that AA is the sponsor of the movie). While traveling, he meets another frequent flyer and business woman, Alex (Vera Farmiga), and they begin a casual relationship. Ryan is called back to his company’s offices in Omaha, Nebraska and finds out that an ambitious young recruit Natalie (Anna Kendrick) is pushing a plan to cut costs by conduct layoffs over the Internet. Ryan argues that Natalie knows nothing about the process of firing people, and his boss assigns him to take Natalie with him on his business travels to show her what it’s like. As they travel together and get to know with each other better, Natalie questions Ryan’s lack of interest in serious relationships, but Ryan is happy to stick to his philosophy. While on the trip, Natalie’s boyfriend dumps her via text message, leaving her devastated – she even moved to Nebraska from San Francisco to be with him. Ryan and Alex, who is there for business, console her and take her with them to crash a conference party at their hotel. The day after, Natalie gets upset to know Ryan’s reluctance to consider a commitment to Alex. Soon after they are called back to Omaha to begin Natalie’s internet layoff program. Instead of returning to Omaha, Ryan decides to invite Alex to his sister’s wedding in Wisconsin. Reunion with his sisters whom he has been avoiding all these years and a happy time with Alex make him realize that there is something more important than being ‘free’ and obsessed with earning mileage. After Ryan comes back home, he feels lonely for the first time. He walks out from his “What’s In Your Backpack?” speech, and flies to see Alex in Chicago. However, when she opens the door, Ryan realizes that she is a married woman with young children. On the flight back home, the crew announces that Ryan has just achieved his 10-million-mile mark, but he cannot get excited by it. Back in Omaha, Ryan calls the airline to transfer miles to his sister and her new husband, who cannot afford to go to honeymoon, so that they’ll be able to fly around the world. Ryan’s boss comes in and tells Ryan that one of the employees he and Natalie fired committed suicide. Natalie has resigned and the company wants to send Ryan back to continue face-to-face layoffs. Ryan writes an impressive letter of recommendation for Natalie for her new job in San Francisco. Ryan goes back to his previous life, but he cannot enjoy it anymore…

Up in the Air is nominated in 5 categories of yesterday’s Golden Globe Awards and also expected to be nominated in Academy Award next March. British media also gives this film a good review, and we enjoyed the film from the beginning to the end, without getting bored for a second. Keywords in modern society, such as recession, layoffs, marriage and relationship, internet, and work, are well incorporated in the film, and I understood and fell empathy for the most of the parts. The real-life humor is superb, and we laughed a lot through the showing time. The contrast between 23 years old Natalie, young and naive, with more realistic and down-to-earth 30s something Alex, makes me reflect myself when I was young and compare to who I am now – I completely agree with Alex now, unfortunately. Cloony, who is almost 50, is still so charming! His role in the film makes me wonder if he, who also enjoy being single, ever feels lonely and empty in his own life as well. I also like the ending which doesn’t fall into the same old happy ending. The opening title sequence using aerial photos of American great natures and cities are so beautiful and impressive, and it is one of my favorites.